WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25,1987, PAGE 9 Resource team next week Tues day Downtown Whitby was recently se- lected by Heritage Canada as one of four new Main Street Canada project communities in Ontarlo. Main Street Canada helps communicities across Canada to revitalize the business and architectural environments of their downtowns. Near the opening of a Main Street project, It is impor- tant to create an order of objectives, priorities and actions for the changes the community hopes to set in motion. To accomplish this a Resource Team will be sent here to convene with local representatives in the community. The Resource Team Is composed of a combination of townspeople and out of town resource people. The townspeople will provide the in- sights and experiences of the com- munity which out of towners can't learn in a short visit. Conversely, the out of towners will be able to provide the objectivity and expertise which may be needed. The out of towners that will be on the Resource Team are professionals who are experts in the different facets of downtown revitalization and the Main Street approach. Alexander Temporale, an architect who specializes in down- town restoration and Jon Linton (Principal, Woods Gordon Management Consultants) the marketing and economic develop- ment specialist will be the two con- sultants during the visit. They will be conducting the majority of the inter- views throughout the three days. A Provincial Government represen- tative and Head Office represen- tative from Heritage Canada are the other two visitors. The local mem- bers of the team are the Main Street Project Coordinator, Georgina Phillips, the.Business Improvement Area Chairman Ed Buffett and Regional Councillor Tom Edwards as the elected Town Government representative. Members of the Resource team will help make an assessment of our community's current business and design situation. Through various functions over the three day visit the Resource Team will assemble a body of knowledge which can then be distilled into an action plan. The Resource Team visit Is carefully detailed and designed to gather as much input from our community as possible. When com- bined with hard data this gives a fairly true reflection of our current status. The Resource Team will be faced Nith three jobs while in Whitby they ire: 1) to look at the OBJECTIVES OF THE COMMUNITY (an - Thursday enumeration of the goals of the town and the merchants will become the long term guide for the programme to revitalize the down- town and will be used to measure the programme's impact on the town); 2) to look at the PRIORITIES AND ISSUES (for the short and medium term the Resource Team will report on the issues facing the downtown and priorize their impor- tance which will give our community March 31 a direction for its energies); and 3) DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN ( the Team will create an Implemen- tation strategy for the short and medium term so that our community can focus its efforts in the revitalization of its downtown.) The intensive three day visit is kicked off with a lunch for the Resource Team to allow for in- troductions and an orientation. After - April 2 lunch the Team will be given a tour of Whitby so that they.can become familiarized with the atmosphere of the community and the economic climate., Interviews of important ac- tors in the community wili be taking place late in the afternoon. That evening, invitéd participants who represent a cross-section of the community will come together for the Focus Group session. This is a forum to exchange the views of the parties that are represented. The Resource Team will be attempting to solicit views from the key down- town actors as to the priorities of the process and actions needed to make the programme successful. The second day of the Resource Team visit will be comprised of several interviews by the Team members of downtown merchants and other key actors in the com- munity to learn of their perception of the downtown. At 3:00 p.m. an OPEN HOUSE AT THE BANK OF MON- TREAL, 100 Brock Street South will be held until 7:00 p.m. in order to allow the community and downtown business people to come and see a display highlighting the revitalization process and be able to speak with a few members of the Resource Team. In addition to this there will be a three question survey for community members to fIII out to let the Resource team know your opinions before they plan their strategy. Following the Open House a Wine and Cheese Reception will be held for Business Improvement Area members, Town of Whitby of- ficials, the media and the members of Provincial and Federal Gover- nments. This will allow the Resource Team to outline what other Main. Street communities have gone through and what Whitby can expect to see over the next few years. The final day of the three day visit will start off with a priority setting meeting. During the three days of the Resource Team's work, team members will find a variety of issues arising. By the end of the third day it is necessary that the Team arrive at a consensus as to the principle issues, priorities and actions which, Whitby must face. The final outcome of the visit will be a report outlining the action plan according to Whit- by's needs according to the predominating issues brought out at the priority setting meeting. This is a very important time for our community and the community's participation wili be needed to bring about the optimum results. ~ 1; J' 41U lut I I d~J!~i1~1~ <~~tzi! .~À ~ y -~ ~ su *a * Il I s. - - À A *,~ ~ ~ v Bakof onru " 0gBok tee . 1 -It